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Color Branding: Geographic and Niche Targeting

A while ago I posted an article on color branding categorizing some general color symbolism theory. It resulted in a discussion over at SU where I was (fairly enough) criticized for looking only at one side of the medal. Really color perception differs from country to country and from niche to niche. Color theory deserves the whole separate blog to cover it and I outlined only some main points. Well, these comments encouraged me to look further into the topic and while it isn’t directly related to SEO or social media I regularly cover, I figured color in branding and web design is an interesting topic worth sharing with my readers.

Color branding: geographic targeting

Color symbolism is very area specific. Color associations vary depending on the national history, traditions and religion. Here is a popular example demonstrating the importance of color research before targeting a new area: when United Airlines expanded the service to Tokyo, their brand color was white. But the company had soon to change it to red, because in Japan, white can be associated with death and mourning.

However not everything is that simple, even within one country one and the same color may evoke quite opposing associations (see ‘red’ that can have both positive and negative associations of courage and sin in the USA).

COLOR

East

Europe

Green

sunrise, life and growth (China)
color of eternal life (Japan)
sickness and/or nausea

There is no such a thing as ‘universal’ color. Even a positive color like green (associated with Nature and growth in most countries) may denote death in South America and countries with dense jungle areas.

The best (and proven) way to target a specific country is to use its national colors – that always evoke positive associations of something familiar and trustworthy. For example, in Argentina where beer is a very popular product, a company called Quilmes has quickly become #1 due to national color branding (compare) and a more successful Coca Colla competitor in Peru Inca Kola managed to outdo the universal monster only thanks to sticking to the country’s national palette.

Color branding: niche targeting

Color choice in your website or brand logo design may be determined by a niche you are targeting. Again, there is no clear line between using some specific color for a vertical worldwide. For an instance, ‘red’ associated with debt and crisis in the US (e.g. it denotes a drop in stock prices) and hence avoided in ‘finance’ niche, has quite opposite associations in Eastern Asia where it is used to denote a rise in stock prices.

COLOR

Auto/Transport

Beauty

Business

Adult

Gambling

Blue

Yes (strong association with clean calm water)

Yes (security)

No (indicates lack of experience)

No (denotes calming tranquility)

Green

No (unlucky color in Europe and US)

Yes (associated with nature, life and growth)

Yes (association with US dollars and safety)

Red

Yes (sexy, speedy, high-energy, and dynamic)

Yes (associated with energy)

No (associated with debt)

Yes (denotes sexuality; e.g. red-light district)

Yes (encourages people to take risks; also paired with yellow)

Yellow

Yes (associated with taxi or a school bus)

No (associated with dishonesty, cowardice,
egoism, betrayal)

No (associated with children)

Yes (when paired with red)

Pink

Yes (cars for women)

Yes (associated with young girls and youth)

Yes (=feminine)

Black

Yes (denotes prestige and luxury (e.g. black limousines))

No (associated with death)

Yes/No (denotes prosperity, e.g. “in the black” but has some clear associations with something ‘bad’ and ‘illegal’)

See? There is no more depressing effect you might have felt with burning red and yellow contrasted to green hues. Blue instantly makes the atmosphere calming and refreshing. (You can try more color exercises here)

Some Fun?

Today as part of my traditional blog fun, I decided to share a few great color tools to play with.

This is really well written and you are totally correct about the importance of choosing colors in branding. Colors can be just as important as picking a name.

I can’t think of a great color example but it’s sort of like the Chevy Nova muscle car of the 1960’s-1970’s. When the American company tried to sell these in Mexico it was a complete failure. What they failed to realize was that nova means “no go” in Spanish. Why would anyone want to buy a car that is a “no go”?

Color palette selection could have the same sort of impact depending on your market. Definitely going to bookmark this post for future reference!

@andymurd: yep, wiki also has a lot of interesting info on color symbolism. You might also want to check each separate article on each color. Like I said, color is a huge topic, so I didn’t try to cover everything. My aim was to structure basics.

What a great way to emphasize the importance of color! As Gunjan Pandya mentioned, color has an absolute relevance to psychology & human attitude & behaivor. The interactiveness of your post is a great way to spice up the blog!

@Isabella: spicing up the blog was what I actually meant to achieve with the post, so thanks for mentioning this. Sometimes I wonder if I need to make my blog more SEO related or rather keep it entertaining…

Thanks tons, Isa! At some point I started worrying that it is getting too entertaining, but I do like blogging this way; and I like it when my work is both exciting and useful (well, who doesn’t?). And your comment is enspiring, thanks again for that.